Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Apologies, I did not refer specifically to it. As the Deputy will see outlined in the Bill, we are not restricted to what areas we can go into. The Deputy proposed to broaden the scope of the national planning statements in amendment No. 203. I will talk about the language in a minute because what are "other challenges"? I do not mean that in any way other than saying I am not sure how one could define "other challenges". That is being honest. I believe the matters as currently set out in the Bill are suitable for the range of considerations. It provides adequate scope for the establishment of national planning statements. The current list is balanced and broad. It allows us to go further than that and take in important issues such as disabilities, gender considerations and the Traveller community, etc., which are all very important. The matters proposed would overextend, and in some cases, potentially dilute the scope of a national planning statement by merging the statement with other policy matters that would not normally fall under planning and that, in some cases, are already provided for. We are not restricted in any way, shape or form in dealing with these matters. We would be getting down to a level of detail that would be inappropriate and might have unintended consequences.